If the New Jersey Devils make the playoffs, Jacques Lemaire should automatically be selected as NHL coach of the year. The league's broadcasters should just award him the Jack Adams Awarad by acclimation. Maybe they should do that regardless of whether the Devils qualify for the playoffs.

Every good hockey team reaches a point in the season where the learning, teaching, and coaching comes to a grinding halt, and expectations skate to the forefront. Welcome to that point in the season, unofficially sponsored by the coaches' slogan: "You should know this by now."

Ilya Kovalchuk scored on a power play with 24.9 seconds left in overtime and the New Jersey Devils continued their remarkable playoff push with a 2-1 victory over the Pittsburgh Penguins on Friday night.